Related

Articles touting workouts and diets to boost metabolism abound in fitness and health magazines. The premise is simple enough, increase your metabolism and you'll burn more calories. Better yet, those bonus calories are burned not during but after a workout, while you're sitting at a computer, on the bus, in front of the TV and during your eight hours of shut-eye.

Most articles recommend increasing muscle mass as a means of boosting metabolism, typically by hitting the weight room. With the promise of an extra 50 to 100 calories burned daily per pound of muscle gained, weight training is hyped as a sure fire way to get rid of that extra jiggle around your hips and belly.

Yet the 50-calories-perpound-of-muscle promise has very little science behind it, despite being quoted routinely in a variety of publications and on the web. The fact is, when it comes to burning calories at rest, muscle is one of the body's least impressive performers.

At 400 calories per kilogram of weight, the heart and kidneys are tops when it comes to the number of calories burned daily. Muscle meanwhile lags well behind at an unimpressive 13 calories per kilogram of weight burned per day (roughly six calories per pound). Get out your calculator and you'll note that the heart and kidneys have a metabolic rate 30 times that of muscle.

In fact, most scientists will tell you that your basal metabolic rate, the technical term for the number of calories burned at rest, is largely determined by genetics and is not significantly altered by diet or exercise.

That makes sense when you consider that your muscles account for only 28 per cent of the calories you burn at rest - compared to your heart, kidneys, liver and brain which combine to make up as much as 70 per cent to 80 per cent of your BMR.

So while there is a caloric afterburn associated with the types of exercise you do and the foods you eat, neither adds up to a number that has a significant impact on weight loss.

That's not to say that adding muscle to your frame is without value.

Strength training improves athletic performance, makes the chores of everyday life easier and can reduce the risk of injury.

It also helps decrease the natural loss of muscle associated with aging.

And for anyone who wants to look better in a bathing suit, swapping out excess fat for additional muscle can make you look and feel better.

So how did the myth regarding the extra 50 to 100 calories burned for every pound of added muscle gather traction? No one is really sure, but there's no shortage of articles and fitness trainers overstating the importance of muscle in boosting metabolism and shedding excess weight.

Yet if any of them had bothered to do the math associated with this "bonus" calorie burn, they would have realized that it doesn't add up. An added 15 pounds of muscle would increases BMR by a whopping 750 calories daily, which is more calories burned than during a 60-minute run, or 22,500 calories a month.

Do another round of calculations, only this time multiply those extra 15 pounds of muscle with the six calories per pound supported by science and the additional calorie burn is about 90 calories a day.

Or, more typical, if you lose five pounds of fat and replace it with five pounds of muscle you'll be burning about 20 extra calories a day (fat burns about two calories a pound). Better than adding an extra 20 calories a day, but hardly the kind of calorie burn that's going to make a difference when you step on a scale.

So is boosting your metabolism through exercise worthy of all the hoopla? In itself, probably not.

But don't forget to factor in the calories burned in order to add and maintain that extra muscle. An hour spent weight training burns between 250 and 400 calories, depending on how much rest you incorporate between reps.

Add another few calories burned post-exercise, which, when combined with the extra 20 or so calories burned due to an increase in your BMR, will start moving your scale in the right direction.

The biggest take-away of this lesson however isn't just an exercise in simple math, but a realization that seeing something quoted over and over again in the headlines and on the Internet doesn't necessarily make it true.

There's a lot of copying and pasting of information on the Internet with very few filters to ensure that the information being shared is legitimate. And there are a lot of so-called fitness experts out there that don't do their homework when it comes to verifying claims made by others.

Fortunately as sport and physical activity is becoming more science-based, more and more commonly-held beliefs are being put to the test within a controlled setting.

That's good news for anyone who wants the straight goods on how to get the most from their efforts in and out of the gym.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.